Basic Norwegian grammar stuff 2

NOUNS
Nouns are special in Norwegian in that they are gender based, i.e. all nouns have one of three genders; masculine,
feminine, neuter and then they have a plural form, irrespective of gender. However, most feminine nouns can
also be treated as a masculine noun (There are regional variations).

en stol (a chair) masculine

et hus (a house) neuter
ei seng (a bed) feminine
This means that the nouns must be graded in their respective ways. Norwegian nouns are graded into four
(usually) distinctive forms, as opposed to only two in English, by incorporating the the (the definite article) into
the noun. e.g.

MASCULINE NOUNS
en stol

stolen

stoler

stolene

a chair
single indefinite

the chair
single definite

chairs
plural indefinite

the chairs
plural definite

So we can see the pattern of a masculine noun clearer, here it is again:

en

Qen

Qer

Qene

NEUTER NOUNS
House, a neuter noun:

et hus

huset

hus

husene

a house

the house

houses

the houses

single indefinite

single definite

et

wet

plural indefinite

plural definite

wene

Note that in the plural indefinite (the third word above) there is nothing added, this is what one-syllable neuter
nouns look like. [We can call this Neuter 1] Thus, three houses will be: tre hus

Neuter nouns with two or more syllables behave like the example below [which we can call neuter 2]:

et maleri

maleriet

malerier

maleriene

a painting

the painting

paintings

the paintings

single indefinite

single definite

plural indefinite

plural definite

et

er

ene

et

As you can see, it behaves just like the masculine nouns in the plural.

FEMININE NOUNS
ei seng

senga

senger

sengene

a bed

the bed

beds

the beds

La

Ler

ei

Lene

Many feminine nouns that end In -e lose the -e and get an -a in the definite, e.g. ei lampe - lampa.
Feminine nouns are exactly the same in plural as the masculine ones. Rather confusingly for the foreign learner,
Norwegian nouns can have different genders according to where you live (or what social class you belong to). For
example, some people would say sengen [treating bed as a masculine noun] instead of senga, [a feminine
noun] and some consider the former to be more conservative, but it is also the case that in Bergen there are only
two genders of nouns (!), masculine and neuter, so any noun that might be feminine elsewhere is used as a
masculine in Bergen. (This works fine if youre Norwegian, but when you are trying to learn these nouns as a
beginner...!)
What would the 4 different versions of the following nouns be:
Remember that there are two kinds of neuter nouns
En gutt (a boy)

Et kapittel (a chapter)

Ei dame (a lady)

En radio (a radio)

Et modem (a modem)

Ei sti (a path)

En datamaskin (a computer)

Et fall (a fall)

Ei dr (a door)

En penn (a pen)

Et fly (an aeroplane)

There are a number of irregular nouns too:

En bok

boken

bker

bkene

En bror

broren

brdre

brdrene

En far

faren

fedre

fedrene

En mor

moren

mdre

mdrene